Sam Biddle

Sexting starting off like one of those stupid terms nobody actually uses, like netiquette. But now it's on CNN nigh daily. So where'd this strange neologism come from? The internet has an answer!

The Atlantic Wire did some digging, and the first utterance they could come up with was way back in 2004, when penises weren't being beamed across Twitter with quite the same frequency as today: "For many people, 'sext messaging' has a disinhibiting effect, like having a couple of cocktails," said Canada's The Globe and Mail.

Since then, the term's become completely informal, losing its quotation marks and "messaging" suffix. Of course, this hasn't stopped the media clueless from struggling to understand this zany wave of hormonal phone-wielders trying to express their urges via electricity-powered machinery.

Have you heard about this hot new sexting craze? All the kids are doing it, according to Fox News.…
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But sexting isn't even related to SMS anymore—the term's flung around every time a dong appears on Twitter or Facebook. Will having actual sex be referred to as sexting someday? If my calculations about the futuristic dystopia we're doomed to are accurate, yes. [The Atlantic Wire, Photo: Shutterstock/Ocean Image Photography]